Letting go
by McflyNiffDaveFrancoFan
Summary: Bruce wants to give Clint everything he deserves and he can't do that with The Hulk around. So, he breaks things off with the archer, thinking things will be better. He was wrong. Oh, how he was wrong. Clint starts to get reckless and do outrageous missions for Fury to forget about the heartache Bruce had caused him.


~I am obsessed with Marvel...Hulkeye is my favorite Avengers couple. I can't stand Clint and Phil together or Tony and Bruce...Just no. It has to be Clint and Bruce!~

Disclaimer: I own no one.

Warnings: Slash. Dom!Bruce, Sub!Clint, talk of mpreg, but no mpreg, violence.

"I don't want you to go." Bruce said as he watched Clint gather a few things from around the room and throw them into a black duffel bag.

"I'll only be gone for a few hours at the most. I've gone on hundreds of missions."

"I worry about you."

Clint turned to him with a smile, "I know. But I'll have Nat with me. We always look out for one another."

Bruce walked up to him, wrapping his arms around Clint's waist.

"Yeah, but its dangerous."

"I promise I'll come back."

"How can you promise that, Clint? Every time your phone rings my heart literally stops, because I'm afraid it's Fury assigning you to a mission. And when you do go off to do only God knows what then I am a nervous wreck. I do my very best to keep the Other Guy at bay, because all he wants to do is go find you to make sure you're all right."

Clint's face softens, "I'm sorry I worry you so much. But this all I know how to do. Its either this or go back to the carnival and I really don't to do that."

"I wish I could make you understand that I can take care of you. I want you to retire."

"You want me to retire almost thirty-five years early?"

Bruce only nodded.

"Then what?"

"We could...I don't know. Maybe get a small house somewhere in the country, where we aren't bothered by anyone. It would just be us."

"Then maybe we could married and have a kid or two and a dog while we're at it."

"You know we can't have children," Bruce said his eyes growing sad, "Not with how I am."

"You would be a great father." Clint pressed the issue.

"No, Clint. We've talked about this..."

"I know we've talked about this, but we're not finished talking about it."

"Okay," Bruce said a little louder than necessary, "What if we have a baby and the Hulk genes transfer over to it. We would a little baby Hulk on our hands."

"We could adopt." Clint stated, his confidence leaving with each passing second.

Clint didn't even want kids now, but someday he would. And he didn't want to have a family with anyone other than Bruce.

"You know how hard it is for me to be around you? I am terrified that I am going to lose control and hurt you or worse. I'm scared I'll lose control when have sex. I can only imagine what would happen. It scares the hell out of me, Clint. Can you picture me with a kid?"

"Yes, and you would make a pretty awesome dad." He said resting his hands on Bruce's chest.

Bruce gave an exasperated sigh. Clint just wasn't getting it.

"The answer will always be no."

Clint knew his boyfriend was getting irritated by the greenish tint of his skin. He knew it wasn't his fault, he was mad at himself for not being to have a family.

"Okay," Clint said softly.

"I need to get going. Nat's waiting for me. I love you."

Bruce took a deep breath, his normal color coming back.

"Love you too. When you get back we are talking more about you retiring."

"I'll retire if we can have kid." Clint said trying and failing to make a deal with his boyfriend.

It happened so fast that Clint didn't have any time to stop it. Bruce shoved him hard against the wall. Bruce held Clint's wrist on either side of his head.

"I can't raise a kid, not with the way I am. Why can't you understand that?" He yelled, the green skin starting to come back.

The door slid open to reveal Natasha.

"What's going..." She took in the sight in front of her; her closest friend being held against the wall by his lover.

"Bruce, Clint, everything all right?" She said cautiously.

"Yeah, Nat. Just talking." Clint stated.

Bruce buried his face in the archer's chest, breathing deeply, still holding onto Clint's wrists, tightly. He was doing all he could not to change.

"We need to be going, Clint." The red head said.

Clint nodded. "Right. Bruce, you need to let me go."

"I know I do." Bruce meant it in a totally different way. He needed to let Clint be with someone else who wouldn't put his life in danger. Someone who could give Clint the family he deserved.

_I have to let you go._ Bruce thought.

"Then let me go." Clint said gently. He would have stroked Bruce cheek, or kissed him or anything, but the older man still had a vice grip on Clint's wrists.

"I'm trying. It's hard. It's so hard." It wasn't going to be easy to let Clint go; to break up with him. When Clint got back from this mission they were going to have a long talk. Bruce was going to break things off with him, so Clint can have the life he deserves. It's not that Bruce doesn't love him, it's completely the opposite. Bruce loves Clint so much that it kills him that he can't give Clint what he truly wants. It hurts his chest when Clint isn't in his sights. He's going to do this because he loves the archer with all his heart.

"The Other Guy just wants to say goodbye, right?" Clint said half-joking.

Bruce lifted his head and gave him a small smile before he leaned in and captured Clint's lips. He let go of his wrists. Clint instantly brought a hand to the back of Bruce's head, deepening the kiss further.

Natasha cleared her throat after a few moments.

"Clint, the mission?"

Bruce slowly broke away from Clint's lips, savoring the taste and the feeling of the younger man's lips. This was most likely going to be their last kiss.

"I have to go. We'll talk more when I get back, okay?"

"Of course we will."

It hurt Bruce because Clint just didn't know what Bruce had in store. He was oblivious.

Clint smiled before walking over to his bag, picking it up and following Natasha out of the room.

Bruce sighed heavily as he walked over to his and Clint's bed and fell back onto it.

Once Clint and Natasha were in the plane she began to look over their mission file while Clint flew the plane.

Natasha glanced over at Clint's bruised wrists.

"Clint..."

"Nat, don't." He stopped her from asking about what just happened. He didn't feel like talking about it.

"But..."

"No, this is between me and Bruce."

She didn't say another word. Instead, she just leaned back in her seat. Natasha and Clint have been friends for many years and she was happy for him when he and Bruce started dating. The scientist made her friend very happy which made her happy. But this scientist, also being the Hulk, made her nervous. She liked Bruce, they were friends after all, but his condition was so out of control she always worried for Clint.

"I'm here for you."

Clint took his eyes off the sky for just a moment to give her a warm smile.

"I know."

It only took a couple of hours to get to their destination. They were soon fighting off the weapon smuggler's henchmen.

Clint saw a man closing in on Natasha. She didn't notice as she was too busy fighting off two others.

"Nat!" Clint yelled before a man struck Clint in the head with a lead pipe.

She turned around only to be pushed to the ground.

Meanwhile Clint was trying to blink away his blurry vision. It seemed as though as soon as he went down every man in the warehouse went after Natasha.

Clint shot arrows at four of them, before he ran out. This lead to hand to hand combat.

Finally the leader took out a gun and had Natasha in his aim. Everything seemed to go in slow motion as Clint pushed her out of the way. There was hot pain as he fell to his knees, holding his left side.

Natasha's eyes widened as she dropped to her knees in front of him.

"Clint! Clint, why did you do that? You idiot!"

The leader began to run towards the door and Natasha took a knife out of her boot and was about to throw it, but Clint took it out of her hand.

"You're a horrible aim." He grunted as he propped himself up on one elbow. He threw it at the man and hit him right in the middle of the back of his neck. The blade went through and stuck out of his throat. As he choked on his own blood Natasha helped Clint stand.

"We have to get you patched up. You're losing too much blood."

Back at the Tower Bruce wandered around his and Clint's floor, which was originally his, but after months of dating he asked Clint to move in with him. He went through many different ways of breaking up with Clint, each leading to disaster.

He finally went to bed around midnight.

Hours later he heard the door swoosh open. He propped himself up one elbow as he turned the lamp on beside the bed. It was Clint. He was still in his black leather attire. There was a small white bandage on his right temple, he had numerous cuts and bruises all around his arms, Bruce could only imagine what his body looked like under his clothes, and he was holding his side.

"Oh my God." Bruce whispered as he scrambled out of bed and over to his boyfriend.

He cupped his boyfriend's face in his hands to have a better look at injuries.

"Missed you too." Clint gave him a smug smile.

"What happened?"

"The weapon smuggler had about two dozen henchmen. I was doing pretty good before some asshole hit me in head with a pipe."

Bruce sighed, "What about your side?" He lifted a hand unsnapped the top of his Clint's leather vest and then slid the zipper down. There was white gauze wrapped around his lower torso.

"I um, may have gotten shot." He flinched, because he knew Bruce wasn't going to be happy.

"This is why I don't want you to do this anymore! You could have gotten killed!"

"If I hadn't have taken the bullet then Nat would be dead right now."

"Clint," Bruce gave a humorless smile, "You..."

He was interrupted by Clint flinging his arms around Bruce's neck.

"I've gone on so many missions and never have been so scared in my life. All I could think about was you. I thought I was actually going to be die. I didn't want to die having fought with you just hours before." He gave a shuddering breath before continuing, "I'm sorry we fought. I just love you so much and I want to buy a house with you and I want to marry you and I want us to have a family. I know you don't want us to have a family, but I want it so badly with you."

Bruce cautiously rested his hands on Clint's ribcage, not wanting to disturb any injuries.

"I love you so much Bruce and I don't know what I would do without you in my life. You're the most important person in my life. You have been the most stable thing in my crazy, screwed up life. I know I can always come home to you."

Bruce closed his eyes. How could he possibly break up with Clint now? This was going to be so hard.

He gently pushed Clint away from his body. Clint gave him a puzzled look.

"Bruce...?"

"Clint, we can't do this anymore."

"What do you mean?" Clint looked as though he was just ten years old then.

"Us, we can't do _us_ anymore. We're not right for each other. I think you should move back to your floor."

"I just poured my heart out to you and you're breaking up with me?" Bruce watched as tears formed in his eyes. He has know Clint for almost a two years and dated him for eight months and has never seen Clint shed a single tear.

"I'm sorry Clint."

"Is it because I won't retire? I'll call Fury right now and tell I quit." Clint hurriedly dug in the pocket of his pants to get his phone out. He was starting to have trouble breathing. His chest tightened as though a great weight was pressing against it.

Bruce gently took it out of his hand and laid it down on the bed.

"That's not it." He shook his head.

"Is it because of the Hulk?"

"No, it's not him," Bruce lied.

"Then what is it? Do you not love me anymore?"

This really got Bruce's attention. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, not knowing how to reply to that. How could he not love Clint?

"I want you to look me in eyes and tell me you don't love me."

Seconds turned into minutes and those minutes felt like hours.

Finally Bruce spoke, looking directly in Clint's eyes.

"I don't love you."

Clint looked away, giving a shuddering breath as he tried not to cry.

"Clint..." Bruce began, but the archer shook his head, silencing him.

"I'll just...I'll go." He reached passed Bruce to pick up his phone from the bed before he turned and walked out of the room. He heard Clint let out a choked sob on his way out.

Bruce heard Natasha's voice out in the hall.

"Clint? What's wrong? What happened? I was coming to see if you were all right before I went to bed. Clint?"

Bruce squeezed his eyes shut tightly. Rage was boiling inside of him. He was trying to keep it together, but he was so mad at himself. He heard the Hulk in his head like he always did right before he changed.

**Want Hawk! Made Hawk go away!**

"Please, just listen. It's better this way. We were only holding him back. We were hurting him."

**Me no want to hurt Hawk.**

"Please, don't come out." Bruce pleaded.

Surprisingly his skin turned back to its normal color and his muscles relaxed. He sighed in relief as he lowered himself on his bed. He was used to going to bed without Clint, because Clint often was out on missions. But waking up in the mornings was going to be hard. Every morning Bruce woke up with Clint in his arms. That would never happen again.

Clint ignored Natasha all the way down to his room which was two floors below Bruce's.

"Clint! Answer me! What happened? Did Bruce hurt you?" A thought struck her hard.

"Did The Hulk do something to you?"

They reached the door to his bedroom. He had one hand on it. He looked up at his oldest friend.

She let out a small gasp. In all the years she had known Clint she had never seen him cry. Her heart broke for him. He looked so broken. All she wanted to do was console her friend.

"I'll see you in the morning, okay Nat?"

Before she could say another word Clint opened his door and stepped inside, making sure Natasha couldn't get in. He needed to be alone right now. She had already seen his tears and he hated himself for that. No one is supposed to see him cry.

Inside his room he made sure no one could get in. His room looked so foreign now after spending so many months in Bruce's room.

Nothing seemed right. There should have been a desk in the far corner of the room with all sorts science books stacked upon one another with papers spread out everywhere, a few button up shirts thrown around here and there, the smell of Bruce's cologne didn't linger in the room. This wasn't _home_.

He rubbed his arms as the room suddenly seemed so cold. He walked over to the bed and sat down. It was cold, unlike Bruce's which always seemed to be warm. Laying down he felt so wrong without Bruce's body against his and Bruce's strong, tan arms around him.

He was crying and he couldn't help but feel like a fool. He hasn't cried since the Swordsman, his mentor in the carnival was embezzling money from the carnival and the said mentor had men beat Clint with an inch of his life. That had been when he was seventeen years old.

He eventually cried himself to sleep.

Meanwhile a few floors up there was a knock on Bruce's door.

"Bruce, it's Natasha." She sounded angry.

Bruce laid back on the bed.

"Bruce, I know you're in there. Open up." Her voice was cold and hard.

Bruce rolled over to face away from the door.

Natasha eventually gave up and left, with plans of trying again tomorrow.

~I feel like this chapter had too many things happen in it. Please leave a review and tell me what you thought of it!~


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